Federal Government's Super Package Act

The Federal Government’s Protecting Your Super Package Act comes into effect on 1 July 2019. The package is designed to protect Australians’ super savings from unnecessary erosion by fees and insurance costs.

The legislation includes changes to fees, the transfer of inactive low-balance accounts to the Australian Tax Office (ATO), and stopping insurance for inactive members.

Inactive account transfer

  • If your account has been inactive for 16 months and you have a balance less than $6,000, it will be transferred to the ATO.
  • An account will be considered inactive if it hasn’t received any money for 16 months in a row.
  • The ATO will keep your money safe and you’ll pay $0 in fees. When you claim your lost super, any interest due will be paid to you. Interest is based on the consumer price index (CPI).
  • Within 28 days of receiving your money, the ATO will try to transfer it to an active super fund if you have one, and where the transfer would take your total balance to $6,000 or more.

Changes to fees

  • There will be a 3% cap on administration and investment fees on accounts with balances below $6,000.
  • Exit fees, including fees for part withdrawals, will be banned.

Changes to insurance

  • If you haven’t received money (any type of contribution) into your super account for 16 months, you could lose your insurance cover.
  • You’ll receive a letter from your superannuation fund if you haven’t received money in your account for 6 months as at 1 April 2019. Your letter will let you know what your options are if you want to keep your cover.
  • From 1 July 2019, if you haven’t received money for 9, 12 and 15 months, they’ll write to you and let you know your options to keep your cover.

Things you can do

To ‘re-activate’ your account, you have a few options, including:

  • making a contribution or having your employer contribute to your account
  • changing your insurance
  • making an investment choice
  • nominating a binding beneficiary to your account, or
  • combining your super accounts so your balance is $6,000 or more.


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